Twitter users to be given official advice to prevent legal blunders

The Attorney General is set to start tweeting advice to prevent social media users from committing contempt of court, an offence that can be punished with a prison sentence.

In a statement issued today, Dominic Grieve said that that the advice was "designed to help facilitate commentary in a lawful way".

Grieve, who pointed to one case that collapsed due to tweets by a jury member, added:

"In days gone by, it was only the mainstream media that had the opportunity to bring information relating to a court case to such a large group of people that it could put a court case at risk. That is no longer the case, and is why I have decided to publish the advisories that I have previously only issued to the media."